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Tuesday, 14 August 2012

When Microsoft announced their own brand 'Surface' tablets the whole tech community stood back and said 'finally, we might have something competitive from Microsoft here'. But, it wasn't long before there were grumblings as suggested retail prices put the tablets in the ridiculously overpriced bracket which was previously only inhabited by Apple. Noone is prepared to pay the price of an Ultrabook for a much less capable tablet.

Today everything above may have changed. The reason, we believe, is the Nexus 7. Google and Asus' new $199 tablet may just have pushed Microsoft to make their pricing similarly competitive in a bid to get Windows 8 powered tablets into your hands! The rumoured price for the RT versions of Surface tablets is $199.

That price point would be great, people would buy it. But, it's hard to say for sure whether this rumour is legitimate or not. Obviously it makes sense but this is Microsoft we're talking about here and given the reception from OEM's to Surface tablets already, it's hard to see this one coming to fruition.

Then there are other things to consider; Microsoft is using an expensive metal chassis on the tablet, it'll have that smart looking keyboard add-on and this is where things start to go against the $200 price rumour.

If Microsoft does release their tablets on October 26th for $200 then we'll be first in line to buy one, but something is stopping us getting our hopes up!

In other news:

Toshiba has announced today that they won't be shipping any tablets with Windows RT on board. Instead the company will be focusing on the fully-fledged version of Windows 8, which is probably a smart move!

Without Windows 8 being released some memos have suggested the next update for Windows 8 will be codenamed 'Blue'. At the moment we're not sure whether this is a whole new OS upgrade or just a service pack, either way it'll be landing in October 2013, exactly a year after Windows 8 is released!

RealPlayer for Android has been released from it's Beta and is quite probably the best media player on the Play Store right now.

Samsung's Galaxy S3 has now been slated for a Jelly Bean update on the 29th of August. Apparently the update is ready to go and Samsung is just holding out for the Galaxy Note 2 to be released before issuing this update! We'll see if GSMArena's source got this one right, fingers crossed!

Apple vs Samsung: The International versions of the Galaxy S, S II, and Ace have been axed from the case after the Judge decided that because these devices are not on sale in the USA that they are not relevant. Did you hear that sigh of relief from South Korea?

There's been quite a few news stories around the web today that Apple has been laying off staff who have been with the company for less than 6 months. In many cases employees had just completed training before facing the axe. Ohh and if you were promised a promotion (and pay upgrade) both of these may well have been cancelled. We're not sure how widespread this is and whether there's something strange going on here but this is confirmed in the UK Apple Stores and we're not sure if similar things are going on elsewhere and similarly we don't know why?

According to Gartner worldwide phone shipments have decreased 2.3% in Q2 2012 compared to the same period from 2011. Apparently the huge anticipation from the upcoming iPhone may have something to do with it, but maybe that double-dip recession may have something to do with it too?

RIM has confirmed they are ready to talk to all comers about licensing BB10. Whether they'll have any takers remains to be seen.

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